Without knowledge of the locative of the name or of the facts of record concerning it, the late Dr. D. G. Brinton, replying to inquiry, wrote me: "I take _Magow_ or _Moggew-assing-ink_ to be from _Macheu_ (Del.), 'It is great, large'; _achsün,_ 'stone', and _ink_ locative; literally 'at the place of the large stone'." The name does not describe the place where the rock lies. The Davis grant in terms other than the Indian name located one as lying "in the kill," and the other is described in the survey of the patent to Beekman: "Land situate, lying and being upon both sides of Rondout Kill or river, and known by the name of Moggewarsinck, beginning at a great rock stone in the middle of the river and opposite to a marked tree on the south side of the river, between two great rock stones, which is the bounds betwixt it and the purchase of Mr. William Fisher," etc.; both records confirm Dr. Brinton's interpretation. As a generic the name may, like Kahanksan, be found in several places, but the particularly certain place in the Beekman grant was at the falls called Honneck, now Honk.
Wawarasinke, so written by the surveyor as the name of a tract of land granted to Anna Beake and her children in 1685, has been retained as the name of a village situate in part on that tract, about four miles north of Ellenville. The precise location of the southern boundmark of the patent was on the west bank of the Rondout, south of the mouth of Wawarsing Creek, or Vernooy Kill as now called, which flows to the Rondout in a deep rocky channel, the southern bank forming a very steep, high hill or point. It is claimed that the Old Fort was on this hill, and that to and from it an Indian path led east across the Shawongunk Mountain to the New Fort and is still distinctly marked by the later travel of the pioneers. That there was an Indian path will not be questioned, nor will it be questioned that there may have been at least a modern Indian village on the hill, but the Old Fort was not there. At the point where the boundmark of the patent was placed the Rondout turns at nearly a right angle from an east and west course to nearly north, winding around a very considerable point or promontory. The orthography of the name is imperfect. By dialectic exchange of _n_ and _r,_ it may be read _Wa-wa-nawás-ink,_ "At a place where the stream winds, bends, twists, or eddies around a point or promontory." This explanation is fully sustained by the topography. Hon. Th. E. Benedict writes me: "The Rondout at that point (the corner of the Anna Beake Patent) winds around at almost a right angle. At the bend is a deep pool with an eddying current, caused by a rock in the bank below the bend. The bend is caused by a point of high land. It is a promontory seventy-five feet high." The inquiry as to the meaning of the name need not be pursued further. The frequently quoted interpretation, "Blackbird's Nest," is puerile. (See Wawayanda.)